How can we make galamsay a criminal activity tantamount to signing one's own death warrant?

How can we make galamsay a criminal activity tantamount to signing one's own death warrant? Egregious iIllegal activities in Ghana's mining sector, occur, because of failure on the part of Ghanaian officialdom, to end impunity, accompanying mining sector illegality.
 
That illegal gold mining (galamsay) has enriched a powerful and well-connected few, in our homeland Ghana, at the expense of ordinary Ghanaians, and at great cost to society, is beyond doubt.

There is no question, too, that the resultant destruction of vast acreages of land in Ghana's priceless forest reserves, by gold miners (ecocidal-criminality that runs through the gamut of both legally registered and illegal mining entities), would never have reached current levels, had regulatory-failure not occurred.

Regulatory failure, results from the unparalleled greed, and lack of moral compasses,  that  have made corrupting key officials of  all the  regulatory  bodies that issue permits and licenses to mining sector entities, a  path to personal enrichment for public officials employed to ensure compliance by sector players  of all the rules, regulations and laws governing operational activities in the mining sector.

In light of  that, the Special Prosecutor's galamsay corruption investigations will yield unprecedented dividends, if he demands that all the key officials in the mining sector regulatory bodies  who sanction permits and licenses for gold prospecting and mining for both small and large scale entities,  should declare their assets, and those of their spouses, to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, within a week.

They are the betrayors-supreme, whose greed and lack of moral compasses,  power the ecocide gradually destroying our biodiversity  hotspots, the invaluable  ecosystem services of which, our longterm survival, and quality of life, depend on, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

That said, clearly, to successfully root out mining sector illegalities, we must endeavour to remove the human factor, from the last-mile-end of the fight against galamsay, nationwide, as much as is practicable.

In that regard, we must treat the fight against galamsay as a national emergency, and put it on a war footing, and deploy killer-drones with night-vision capabilities that use AI to search, locate and destroy targets across the length and breadth of our country.

Nothing else will do if we are the effectively protect the remainder of our priceless natural capital - now even more valuable than all the minerals underneath our forest reserves combined, at a time of climate change.

To do so, we must put an end to  night-cover-galamsay operations pronto, by the usage of killer drones  -  which will quickly make venturing out at night to engage in galamsay, to be regarded by sundry criminal types, across Ghana,  as  tantamount to signing one's own death warrant. Enough, really, is enough.  Case closed.

Could credit card-sized gold bars and Adinkra symbol embossed gold coins bedrock Ghana's tourism sector?

Could credit card-sized gold bars and Adinkra symbol embossed gold coins bedrock Ghana's tourism sector? For yonks,  some of us have written countless articles, humbly suggesting that the Precious Minerals Marketing Company  (PMMC), ought to be allowed to mint credit-card-sized gold bars, gold coins embossed with Adinkra symbols, and traditional jewelry pieces.


The idea is to  turn the PMMC'S gold  trading floor, into a magnet for prosperous middle class Chinese and other Asian national demographics - and help grow our inbound tourism market, by leaps and bounds, that way.


If Thailand earned nearly US$72 billion from 31 million visitors in 2016, would gold-bedrocked tourism, not be more beneficial to our national economy - than allowing assorted  poverty-stricken foreign-chancers to come and engage in galamsay across Ghana's entire territorial landmass, with total impunity?


Even as we speak, criminals from all over the world, are busy destroying our groundwater sources, streams, rivers systems and other water bodies as they engage in illegal gold mining, with impunity - polluting our soils, sundry water resources,  with heavy metals and toxic chemicals, in the process: and committing ecocide by felling trees to produce chainsaw bushcut  lumber, to finance their operations, to add insult to injury. Haaba.


And, worst of all, they are  smuggling tonnes of gold out of our bankrupt nation, year round, without paying a pesewa in taxes on them. Why are they being allowed to get away with what is an open secret? Isn't that madness? Haaba.


As wise and aspirational Africans, the question to ponder over is: Has the time not now come for us to eliminate the galamsay business entirely in ruthless fashion - and replace it with community-based ecotourism,  bedrocked on PMMC trading floor sales of credit-card-sized gold bars, Adinkra symbol embossed gold coins and traditional-themed gold jewelry made by master-crafts-people?

Thinking the unthinkable to rescue Mother Ghana from the doldrums

We must think the unthinkable, if we want to rescue Mother Ghana from the doldrums, by stepping out of the shadow of conventional economic thinking, which limits our horizons no end.


Asked what stepping out of the shadow of conventional economic thinking, in practical terms, involves, I opined to a dear old friend that essentially, it means executing the steps needed to facilitate the transformation of Ghana into a prosperous and equitable society, underpinned by a system, which benefits all its populace's demographics.


As a wise and aspirational African people, whose national economy has tanked, and who face collective-ruination, we must think the impossible, oooo, Ghanafuor - if we are to pull ourselves out of the slippery-walled hole, we have ended up in: thanks to the unparalleled greed driving the state-capture rent-seeking crowd (whose greed is unparalleled in our post-independence history), who now dominate our byzantine system. 


What does thinking the unthinkable entail, dear critical-reader? It entails envisioning an African nation-state determined to profit handsomely from the myriad opportunities available to it, by the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) market, fork9 example.


What is the significance of the AfCFTA? To quote the World Bank:"The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating. The pact connects 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a 11combined gross domestic product (GDP) valued at US$3.4 TRILLIONS1. It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, but achieving its full potential will depend on putting in place significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures."


Thinking the unthinkable to enable us benefit fully from the AfCFTA, means ditching conventional economic thinking and adopting creative sure-fire policies to grow our national economy rapidly.


Why, for example, do we not make Ghana a paradise for both entrepreneurs and workers, by encouraging them to collaborate to ensure the success of all commercial undertakings in Ghana? Will that not make our private sector companies super-competitive? Will that not turn our manufacturing sector into an AfCFTA manufacturing  hub for many products?


To achieve that desirable end, we should have the courage to ban investors who use shell companies, registered in tax havens, such as Mauritius and Luxembourg - which, when targeting Global South markets, are invariably established for the sole purpose of ripping off emerging nations, if truth be told. Nothing good can flow from such investments, as far as mobilising funds for the development of nations in Africa is concerned.


Thinking the unthinkable, also entails, for example, removing the burden of funding the expansion and modernisation of critical infrastructure required to grow our national economy, from the state completely - and in so doing, create opportunities for the private-sector (in partnerships between local and foreign investors), examples being private companies self-financing the building of high-speed railway networks, and tolled six-lane dualised concrete motorways, from Accra, to all the regional capitals, which they will own, operate and maintain for 35 years, before transferring them to the state: transferring their profits overseas 100 percent during that period.


Pension funds and insurance companies in Ghana can provide longterm low interest capital for such projects. 


Thinking the unthinkable, also entails designing initiatives that make regular assured tax-revenues available to governments-of-day.


Building new green climate resilient housing for slum-dwellers in new purpose built green communities, for example, will make it possible to raze down slums across Ghana, and facilitate the building of new world-class high-end mixed commercial and residential developments, in areas where hitherto  slums existed, nationwide.


The aforementioned policy, will be made possible, by the provision of 100-year generational levelling-up funds, for individuals and families, that apply for them, to underpin the building of new green family homes for slum dwellers, in new planned green climate-resilient communities across the landmass of the Republic of Ghana - with repayments from such loans providing revenues for pension funds and insurance companies that provide them, as well as taxes for governments-of-the-day.


Finally, to transform rural Ghana into an area of prosperity, we must encourage the brightest and best entrepreneurs in our country to invest in the agricultural sector, and ensure food security, by thinking the unthinkable - making the whole of our national economy's agricultural sector, not just the cocoa industry, tax free.


That can be done by replicating the brilliant Western Regional organic agripreneur, Issa Ouedraogo's unique profit-sharing climate smart organic farming model, which uses agroforestry principles, to empower its value-chain's oil palm smallholder farmer-stakeholders to bootstrap their way out of poverty to financial independence, for all our key crops, nationwide. These are just a few examples of thinking the unthinkable, if we want to rescue Mother Ghana from the doldrums.

A quick note to Kofi Boakye-Yiadom - on why the war in Ukraine concerns Africans too

Favourite nephew, on the thorny issue of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the question to ponder over is: Why fight wars in the first place - when every general, who genuinely cares about the well-being and welfare of the troops under his or her command, whom you talk to earnestly, will tell you candidly, that resolving differences between nations, is achieved most effectively, in the longterm, not militarily, but through diplomacy?

In any case, if the privileged politicians who declare wars (that ordinary folk invariably end up having to fight in, and risk being maimed and losing their lives doing so), were forced to lead battlefield troops, personally, from the frontlines, themselves, wouldn't wars virtually cease, somehow, worldwide, I ask? Haaba.

Unfortunately, many Africans think that the war in Ukraine doesn't affect them - but it does. Ukraine exported about 6.26mn tonnes of wheat to Africa in 2021-22, accounting for nearly 12 percent of total African wheat imports. Bread is important for most families across the continent, is it not? Haaba.

Furtheremore, the super-ruthless Russian mercenary group, Wagner, has a presence in Africa - where it is hoovering up minerals and other valuable natural resources, in exchange for providing more or less outdated Russian military hardware, and ineffectual training to enrich its founder, the billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin.

So every African, who thinks clearly, ought to be concerned about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and its deliberate targeting of civilians and critical infrastructure. That the Wagner Group could attempt to do same here, too, one day, cannot be ruled out.

Favourite nephew, Putin has forced a great European power, the Russian Federation, which ought to be a force for good, globally, to morphe into a bad-actor on the global stage - which is why Africans, a mostly compassionate people, must condemn Russia's totally unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine. Full stop. Case closed.

Is an iteration of the events of June 4th 1979 a certainly in today's Ghana?

Has the arrogance, unparalleled greed and insensitivity of those who now dominate our system, made an iteration of the events of June 4th 1979, a certainty, in our homeland Ghana, today, anaaaa, Ghanafuor? Hmmm, 3y3nsem piiiii, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

In that light, perhaps the key lesson that future governments-of-the-day, in Ghana, ought to learn (from the inability of members of the current government to properly guage the real mood of ordinary people across the country), is to ensure that world-class professionalism, bedrocks our security agencies, at all material times, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo...

If those who dominate any nation's system in Africa, jam-pack its secret services with party foot soldiers, as a jobs for the boys move  -  to placate those who miss out on the sharing of state-capture benefits, which flow from Machiavellian pork-barrel-politricks - the possibility of the leadership losing touch with the concerns of common people, because they inhabit a luxurious bubble-of-comfort, becomes a certainty: making the possibility of enforced regime-change, a question of when, not if, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo...

The question a wise and aspirational African people ought to ponder over is:  What serious country, anywhere in our biosphere, will tolerate the continued stay in office, of a finance minister who more or less  destroyed the national economy, by piling up a gargantuan metaphorical debt-mountain, dear critical-reader?

Ken Ofori-Atta's continued stay in office, as Ghana's finance minister, illustrates perfectly, the total lack of respect for ordinary people, which characterises the current regime. The arrogance, unparalleled greed and insensitivity of those who now dominate our system, has made an iteration of the events of June 4th 1979, a certainty, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

Father Joop Visser: Wu y3 bue a aankasa, wai!

Father Joop Visser, what I particularly like about Professor Kojo Yankah's virtual Pan African museum project's push into South America,  is that although  Blacks there are marginalised like most Blacks outside of Africa, often are,  through the museum project, and personal  visits to Nkrumah's Ghana, many will gradually gain self-confidence, and be imbued with abundant  self-belief, which will enable them to shine in the societies of their oft-racist countries.

Sage, Amen to all that, wai. One's hope, is that in the not too distant future,  perhaps a Pope much like you, in spirit,  might be selected to lead the Roman Catholic Church, from its Vatican City HQ. Amen.

As for the here and now, yes,  let us by all means enjoy our alloted time-span on this plane, in harmonious fashion, with all our fellow humans (regardless of skin-hue and professed religious faith), and all the other life-forms we share our common home (our existentially-threatened biosphere), with.

So therefore, Hallelujah, to all that, sayeth Kofi  Thompson  -  an irascible,  uneducated and ignorant old fool: who is not a fool for nothing, koraaaa, wai,  Sage, lol. Father Joop Visser, wu y3 bue ankaa!

Will rigging 2024 elections set off 1979-type house-cleaning-coup to end state-capture rent-seeking?

Sage, you posed the question: "Why should the IMF tell us our fate but not the loanseekers themselves and let the public know the consequences prior to adoption of those loans? If Parliament did not know, what is their reaction today?" Great question. Bravo. 

Sadly, Father Joop Visser, ours is a system that is a metaphorical revolving-door-of-greed, through which those who win power, swiftly replace themselves with yesteryear's powerbrokers: and continue the process of milking Mother Ghana dry.  

Our curse, as a wise and aspirational Africans, is that both the ruling NPP, and the largest of the opposition parties, the J. J. Rawlings-inspired National Democratic Congress (NDC), are two sides of the same coin-of-greed. 

They are the two entities that make up the duopoly that has monopolised power throughout the life of the 4th Republic, thus far - and when it comes to the art and science of state-capture rent-seeking family-and-friends governance, alas, they are all in it together, oooo, Sage.   

Their objective is sending their personal net worth to stratospheric heights within the shortest period possible - by any means necessary.    

That is why  one now understands those who think that nothing short of a Rawlings-type house-cleaning  revolution, will end the mammoth-purloining of our nation's assets, by the big-thieves-in-high-places who dominate our byzantine system. Hmmm, 3y3nsem  piiii, oooo,  Sage.   

Long story short: Nothing short of a Rawlings-type house-cleaning-revolution will end state-capture rent-seeking in Ghanaian politics, Ghanafuor  -  and it will be triggered by attempts to rig the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, as sure as day follows night,  oooo, Ghanafuor Yoooooooo...

Ghana not an exception to rule that no army can stop a fed-populace seeking regime change

It is interesting that the most arrogant and gung-ho top-level members of  Ghana's current ruling party, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP), have started intimating that they will never hand over power, after the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, to the largest of the opposition parties,  the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Hmmm, ey3asem, oooo, Ghanafour.

The question is:  What do the NPP's Hon.  Bryan Acheampongs know that the vast majority of Ghanaians, don't, about Ghana's future - in the immediate aftermath of the declaration of results for  December 2024 presidential and parliamentary  elections? Hmmm, ey3nsem piiiiii, oooo, Ghanafuor...

Be that as it may, given the significant numbers  of fair-minded and open-minded apolitical  Ghanaians, who have become  disappointed in the performance of the managers of our national economy, under the current government, it is rather odd that the Bryan Acheampongs  still think that somehow Ghanaians will return their party to power again, in free and fair elections.

Let the Bryan Acheampongs dream on. Time changes everything in the topsy-turvy world of politics. If they want a repetition of the events of June 4th, 1979, then, by all means, let them attempt to rig the results of the 2024 elections. Yoooooooo...


Whatever the Bryan Acheampongs have up their  super-expensive designer-labelled-sleeves (speaking metaphorically), they will get a rude shock, and experience a bewildering-awakening, after the 2024 presidential and parliamentary  elections  -  when it suddenly dawns on them that, really, the  game is up, and that no army anywhere in the world, can stop a thoroughly fed-up, peace-loving  population who want new leaders to govern their country: and that Ghana is no exception to that rule. Yoooooooo...

Tolling roads is the best option - if we want world-class roads nationwide

Tolling roads is by far the best option for Ghanaians - if we want world-class roads nationwide. As a wise and aspirational African people, surely we must no longer tolerate bad roads in our communities - constructed at great cost to hapless taxpayers but shoddily constructed despite that? Haaba.

In other words, we are a society in which the state builds expensive roads that invariably deteriorate rapidly, after a year or two. Scandalous. Unpardonable. Shameful. Intolerable. Full stop.


That said, the question to ponder over is: Will communities (both rural and urban) across our homeland Ghana, not willingly, and happily, pay tolls to use roads, which are world-class and always well maintained?

In that light, if governments-of-the-day are perpetually broke, why does the road sector industry association not talk instead to pension funds and insurance companies - to provide their members with longterm funding for constructing world-class roads: and split profits from toll revenues with those local road contractors? Simple commonsense, is it not, Ghanafuor? Tolling roads is by far the best option for our nation - if we want world-class roads nationwide, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

Ghanafuor: 3kafuor 3nsu 3ndidi anaaaa?

Ghanafuor: Enti 3kafuor 3nsu 3ndidi anaaaa? Haaba. Even an uneducated old fool like me knows that by definition, secret clauses in international  loan agreements that Parliament isn't aware of, and hasn't approved,  are illegal and unconstitutional.

Ghanafuor, shouldn't we demand that Parliament declares all those Chinese loans with secret clauses as unconstitutional  illegalities, anaaa  -  or perchance play Russian roulette and wait for another General Kutu Acheampong-type   y3ntua, afris3 3kafuo ensu edidi, military  coup?

Ditto look on helplessly, as we are  mercilessly swamped with yet more and more taxes, by the geniuses into whose grasping hands Mother Ghana has tragically fallen, anaaaa  -  the super-arrogant dissembling, hard-of-hearing rent-seeking state-capture grifters, who are determined to send their net worth to stratospheric heights at the expense of ordinary folk?  3kafuo 3nsu 3didi, oooo, wai, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

What reparations will ordinary Ghanaians eventually force their Chiefs to pay to atone for yesteryear's slave trade?

In the fullness of time, Ghana's thoroughly-fed-up populace, will force their nation's Chiefs, to pay reparations, for the role played by their forebears, in facilitating the slave trade, for European slave traders to profit so mightly,  from, during its apogee.

Chiefs across Ghana, will make those reparations, to atone for the egregious betrayal of the Black race, by their forbears  -  by making restitution to ordinary people across the territorial landmass of the Republic of Ghana: for facilitating the crime against humanity, which the abominable slave trade of the past, represents.

The question, dear critical-reader, is: How will that happen? Well,  as wise and aspirational Africans, ordinary Ghanaians will simply demand that their government nationalises, and takes over, Stool Lands, nationwide - and redistribute them to landless Ghanaians, who wish to farm, but don't have access to land: on 100-year leases. Simple. Case closed. Sarjewah. Full stop.

India rid herself of its Maharajahs to prosper - should Ghana rid itself of its Chiefs, too, to prosper?

India rid herself of its Maharajahs to prosper. The question is: Must Ghana rid itself, of its Chiefs, too, in order to prosper? There are some Ghanaians who posit that one of the key reasons why Ghana has failed to realise her full potential, is because the meritocracy Nkrumah believed in, was jettisoned after his overthrow.

Those who took over the country after Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966, opted instead for inherited privilege's handmaiden, nepotism - the last bastions of which are the palaces of Chiefs: still packed with slaves, nationwide, as it happens, as we speak, Ghanafuor.

In that light, the question a wise and aspirational African people must ponder over is: Has the time not now come to demand reparations from the major betrayers of the Black race, African Chiefs, whose slave-raiding pillaging-wars, enabled them to capture their fellow humans, whom they callously sold to European slave traders, who sent them to the Americas and the Caribbean, in hellish conditions, on ships designed for that purpose?

India, which had Maharajahs who were a zillion times more powerful, and magnificent, than all our Chiefs, bar none, swiftly rid herself of them, because its nationalist leaders understood clearly that they had to rid India of inherited privilege, if its greatest enemy, meritocracy, was to power post-independence India's transformation, into a prosperous nation.

They were prescient: Today, India is a global economic powerhouse, while Ghana (which perversely thinks that, somehow, Chiefs, corrupt super-arrogant tribal-supremacists, who still enslave people, and commit  ritual murder, routinely, with impunity, are the embodiment of its culture), has become a bankrupted nation, dominated by the greed-filled rent-seeking progeny, of our pre-colonial ruling elites, whose citizens daily struggle to survive an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, amidst galloping inflation nationwide.

Ghanafuor, the question we can no longer ignore pondering over is: If we are to prosper, like India has, must we also rid ourselves of the Chieftaincy institution, anaaa? Yooooooooo...

Creative leadership is what Zimbabwe needs but lacks

Seldom has any Global South nation needed creative leadership, as does Zimbabwe, today.To avoid losing a massive green economy levelling-up opportunity, the government of Zimbabwe must swiftly rescind its unfortunate decision to grab private sector carbon offset funds.

That abomination is a grave error of judgement, for a country with a worthless national currency.

If Zimbabwe is desperate for hard currency, surely, it could use some of the funds from gold sales it is allowing regime-insiders to hold on to illegally - in collusion with foreign crooks smuggling gold out of Zimbabwe to GCC jurisdictions? Haaba.

Above all, why does the leadership of Zimbabwe not collaborate with the young local inventor, whose game-changing inventions in the EV, aviation and power sectors, apparently defy the laws of physics?

Those astonishing inventions, could transform Zimbabwe into the most prosperous society on the surface of the planet Earth - producing battery-free EVs with limitless range, helicopters that fly with no fuel and limitless truly affordable emission-free clean power, sans storage batteries. Creative leadership is what Zimbabwe needs. Pity there is such a dearth of it there currently.

Paying for an award of any kind makes no sense

At a time when we are experiencing an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, surely, we need to rid Ghana of the unconscionable tweaaaa-outrage, which being asked to pay for high-falutin-sounding awards, by entities created spefically for that dubious purpose (to enrich its shady promoters, no doubt), represents? Haaba.

A paid-for-award, of any kind, and category, is a phoney-award that's best avoided, when genuinely-earned-money, is so hard to come by, in today's Ghana. It's strictly for egoistical-folk, who have more money than sense, oooo, Ghanafuor. Remember the infamous 'UN Awards' dreamt up by some chancer in Ghana years ago? Yooooooo...

No serious and truly world-class individual, or entity, would agree to be part of such grifter-fare, oooo, Ghanafuor. Genuine award-bestowing-entities the world over (such as the Nobel Prizes, for example) give out cash awards to selected winners - not the other way round, wai. With the greatest respect, paying for an award of any kind, makes no sense - and is nonsensical. Yabre. Haaba.

Would a citizen-science BioBlitz initiative help turn the Atewa Forest Reserve into a national park?

Perhaps a citizen-science BioBlitz, involving the youth of Akyem Osino, Akyem Saamang and Akyem Juaso, under the aegis of SYTO Ghana, A Rocha Ghana and Eco-Conscious Citizens Group, might finally help prod Jubilee House to get Ghana's President Akufo-Addo,  to declare the Atewa Forest Reserve (and the aboreal slopes off it), a national park, and ban all mining from it, at long last?

Surely that will make it possible for private sector entities from around the world, such as the airlines that fly in and out of Ghana, to buy carbon credits from there to neutralise their massive carbon footprints  - and help create a booming new green economic pillar there, for Akyem Abuakwa, and the rest of Ghana's Eastern Region?

As the biggest private freehold landowners in Akyem Juaso, my family would be happy to include the P. E. Thompson estate's Akyem Juaso 14-square mile freehold upland evergreen rainforest property, in any such citizen-science  BioBlitz initiative. Cool.

Authentic Ivory Towers actually have a purpose

Amazing that it's lost on so many in the Republican Party that world leadership requires a meritocracy that is truly world-class and cosmopolitan in its worldview.

That is what assured America's power and wealth in the past.

One shudders at the thought of the tens of millions of half-baked hidebound-ignoramuses America's besieged educational system will produce decades from now  -  as the narrow-minded and shortsighted policies advocated by extremist right-wing politicians, such as Ron DeSantis, the current Governor of Florida, begin to affect America's place in the world.

Authentic Ivory Towers across America actually have a purpose - suprising though it might be to some: continously producing world-class leaders able to compete globally, successfully, to ensure America's leadership in all spheres of human endeavour. Cool.

Let's say no to tribalism in Ghana

We pray for the ordinary people of Sudan, who are victims of the senseless and tragic civil war now raging across that vast sister nation of ours. Nothing can justify such abominable and unspeakable acts of violence - merely to enable selfish individuals to lead any nation in today's Africa.


We must never allow our homeland Ghana to descend into violence and chaos, because of the personal ambitions of politicians. Ever. No. No. No.

It is said that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. As a wise and aspirational African people, we must shun all tribal-supremacist politicians, regardless of wherever in our homeland Ghana, they hail from - for their foolish arrogance and narrow-minded chauvinism, will sow the seeds of future conflict that will ruin us all, ooooo, Ghanafuor. No tribe is superior or inferior to another in today's Africa. Let's say no to tribalism in Ghana. Yoooooooo...

Is high-level corruption the reason why Mother Ghana now faces ruination?

Why is Mother Ghana now facing ruination,  dear critical-reader? Is it because of the number of Ghanaian media practitioners, who are in the same situation that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finds himself today  -  bankrolled for decades by their own Ghanaian fatcat-equivalents of Justice Clarence Thomas' benevolent/malevolent Harlan Crow, anaaaaa? Hmmm, ey3nsem piiii, ooooo, Ghanafuor.

Furthermore, is Mother Ghana facing ruination, today, because so many of our major political figures are also beholden to super-wealthy state-capture rent-seeking criminal-types, and the big-thieves-in-high-places, who dominate our byzantine system, anaaaa, Ghanfuor? Hmmm, ey3asem, oooo - asem kesiy3 bi ebeba debi ankasa, ooooo, Ghanafuor.

Well, for sure, it is what it is, dear critical-reader -  but whatever be the case, Mother Ghana definitely faces ruination: if as wise and  aspirational Africans, we don't sit up, and finally take immediate steps to end high-level corruption in our Motherland, swiftly, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo...

Bravo to the unsung heroes who keep state-owned Ghanaian entities such as the ECG afloat

Today (9/5/2023), I am saying Ayeekoo to the Electricity Company of Ghana's  (ECG) entire workforce. Why, you might wonder, dear critical-reader? A storm, which was accompanied by gale force winds, struck  Gomoa Buduburam, two days ago - leaving  parts of the area without power.

As it happens, when virtually all the houses in the part of the Gomoa Buduburam SHC estate where we live had their power supply restored, ours was not restored, unfortunately.

As power is essential to life in today's world,  we called the Electricity Company of Ghana  (ECG), which assured us that a team had been dispatched to our area, and would contact me, to direct them to our place, to restore our power supply.  They did not disappoint us. We now have power,  thanks to them.

Such hardworking state-owned entity  employees are often criticised for failing the enterprises that employ them.  That is what makes the ECG crew that came to restore our power unsung heroes, in my humble view - such dedicated workers are the nation builders of our time, whose hardwork we seldom acknowledge:  but frequently criticise. I am most grateful to them. ECG workforce, mu  y3 bue, ankasa. Mi  ma munyinaa ayeekoo.

Let's be real about reparation

There is a need for humankind  to be real about reparations: Truth be told, woke-reparations don't make sense one bit. Where is the money going to be sourced from to pay for them, one wonders?

Smart-reparations: Surely, 100-year tax holidays for businesses owned by descendants of slaves, and free trade agreements for nations with large populations of descendants of slaves, could make a difference - and help  to create self-bootstrapped generational wealth for slave descendant communities across such nations?
 
Above all, why have the descendants of the arrogant, greed-filled and super-ruthless African tribal ruling-elites that launched endless wars, to pillage and capture prisoners, to sell as slaves to foreign slave traders, escaped scrutiny - especially as their palaces are jam-packed with slaves, today, even as we speak: and some of them allegedly  engage in ritual murder, routinely, with total impunity? Let's be real about reparations, wai. Yoooooooo...

The Russian Military Must Depose Putin to restore its honour

 "Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in."

-- Aristotle (384 - 322 BC).

Russia's President Putin needs to revise his notes quickly. If tyrants tracing their people's historical roots to ancient empires went to war to revive them, regularly, what would humanity's fate be, today?

Nothing can justify Putin invading the territory of a sovereign neighbour and massacring civilians, destroying critical infrastructure, as well as prostituting the  honour of Russia's military, on top, too, in the process.

Ukraine must be armed sufficiently enough to enable her defeat Russia, and expel Russian forces occupying Ukrainian sovereign territory, to make that possible - and finally help free Russians from a murderous delusional-kleptocrat ruining their great nation so egregiously.

For ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin must be deposed by Russia's military, and swiftly tried for crimes against humanity, by the International Criminal Court  (ICC). That will help restore the honour of Russia's military.

How the IMF can best protect the future of children in Ghana

The IMF can best protect the future of children in Ghana, by demanding anti-corruption reforms before providing funds for the government that has bankrupted their nation. It can do so by:

1) Asking for passage of new laws by Ghana's Parliament giving prosecutorial powers to the Auditor General.

2) Demanding new laws being passed under a certificate of urgency, to end public procurement sole-sourcing.

3) Demanding passage of new laws banning all mining in forest reserves to protect the remainder of Ghana's priceless natural heritage.

4) Demanding new laws requiring all ministerial and high level public sector appointees to publicly publish their assets, and those of their spouses, before assuming office - and immediately after their tenures end.

5) Demanding passage of new laws indemnifying whistleblowers from prosecution and guaranteeing their being rewarded with 30 percent shares of recovered stolen public funds made possible by their whistleblowing.

The children of Ghana know just how caring the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, is. She must not let them down. No. No. No. Bailing out their leaders without laws to drastically reduce high-level corruption will be tantamount to fetching water in a wicker basket.

Ghana's rapacious and hard-of-hearing ruling elites must be left to stew in their own juice if they resist the aforementioned reforms designed to curtail the egregious and ruinious state-capture rent-seeking designed to send their personal net worth to stratospheric heights, which is ruining the future of children in Ghana. Enough is enough. Case closed. Yoooooooo...

Is Moringa a cloak for illicit financial flows and tax-evasion?

Bush telegraph sources allege that the French investment entity, Moringa, is a front for illicit financial flows and tax evasion. 


The question is: Are the legal vehicles registered in Luxembourg and Mauritius, Moringa Mauritius Africa, and Moringa SCA Sicar, by the French investment company, Moringa (which bush telegraph sources say is exploiting Ghana's legal system to enable it hijack the organic palm oil processor, B-BOVID, from its founder, Issa Ouedraogo), deliberately engineered for use to cloak illicit financial flows, as some of its critics allege?


Apparently, all the signs of money laundering are present in Moringa's profile: Registered offices in scandal-ridden tax havens, and in the case of Mauritius, selfsame postal addresses used by many tax dodging entities accused of illicit financial flows. Ditto same auditors. Amazing.


In the revelations about Adani, the Indian conglomerate, by activist investors, Hindenberg Reseach, for example, the same registered office in Mauritius (actually a postal address on a particular street in Port Louis named after US President John F. Kennedy, lol), used by Moringa, popped up. Wow.


The question is: Why did Moringa inform the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre that the African Development Bank (AfDB) had given it US$20 million - when in actual fact the funding from the AfDB amounted to just US$10 million?


Was the ground being prepared to enable them eventually transfer the bloated figure from Ghana, to Mauritius and thence on to Luxembourg tax free, perhaps, as its critics allege ? 


Because Antoine Turpin's disputed recruitment is a key-factor in the matter of the dispute between Moringa and Issa Ouedraogo, the BUNGE Loders Cocklaan executive who wrote that letter, must be supoenaed to come and clarify to the arbitration panel, when it was that Antoine Turpin left their employ, and what his position was at his departure, and what exactly the USD48,000 he took from B-BOVID to pay them, was actually for. His evidence must based on strict-proof basis.


Critics of Moringa, make the point that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a rent demand letter used to enable Antoine Turpin to withdraw USD48,000 from B-BOVID's bank account, might actually be documentation for a very clever tax-dodging money laundering scheme, with the accumulated rent demand letter, a bogus cover story, which was meant to be a perfect sleight-of-hand ruse, to enable them cloak an egregious tax-dodging illegality, and give it legitimacy, that way. This allegation needs investigating by the authorities in France and Ghana for the truth to be established. For all we know BUNGE Loders Crocklaan might be innocent and blameless. Cool.


Be that as it may, the question to ponder over is: Was the rent demand letter meant to facilitate stress-testing their illicit financial flows scheme, to enable them see whether or not it would be easy for Moringa and BUNGE Loders Crocklaan (and the other entities that Antione Turpin would also be working for while CEO of B-BOVID), to engage in illicit financial flows, with Antoine Turpin controlling B-BOVID, as its CEO?


It is noteworthy to observe that in the event, it was very easy for Antoine Turpin to transfer huge sums out of B-BOVID, once he had been successfully foisted on it. Moringa must not be allowed to get away with this abomination. No. No. No.


We must support successful local agrisector entrepreneurs if we are to ensure food security for Ghanaians. We must not rely on foreigners to ensure food security for Ghanaians.That is why B-BOVID must be returned to its founder, Issa Ouedraogo - and Moringa penalised for subjecting him to mental torture from egregious shareholder oppression and unspeakable reputational-harm: with their unpardonable falsehoods and twisted half-truths, in their bid to ruin him for defying them.

Open letter to Kofi Bampoe and Kwame Thompson

Dear Kofi Bampoe and Kwame  Thompson,

I shall go straight to the point: The court notice announcing the granting of our application for Vesting Assents, for our 50 percent of the bequests in Clause 12A of the  will of our late Grandpa, will be posted on the walls of the family house near the old Akwapim Adukrom Presbyterian Church, and on the wall of P. E. Thompson's uncompleted house near the telco cell  tower, regardless of what any of your clique says.

You would be in contempt of court if you tried to interfere with the work of the court bailiff fixing the notice, for your information.

It would be unwise to add that to the string of illegalities committed by the two of you, in the period since the death of the late Charles Benoni  Mante, the last surviving of the two executors, of the will of the late P. E. Thompson Esq., who was his uncle.

For your information, not even the President of the Republic of Ghana has the right to go to the Deeds Registry of the Lands Commission,  and disappear documents stored there. It is an egregious falsehood to accuse me of going to pose as P. E.  Thompson to disappear family  documents there. Be careful in slandering me, oooo. Yoooooooo...

Finally,  be clear in your own minds that as interested parties, who are equal beneficiaries of bequests made in Clause 12, you  have no authority in the administration of the Estate of the late P. E. Thompson, whose memory, once upon a time, my sister Nanayire Marian, and I, honoured, by establishing P. E. Thompson Farms & Commodity Exports Limited, to export organic produce  -  our vision for the whole family including both of you.

So stop the pure nonsense-on-stilts allegation that somehow, that means that I am going around  posing as P. E. Thompson. How absurd and daft can you get?

Had it not been for your lack of foresight and shortsightedness, today, our family would be one of Ghana's biggest producers of organic palm oil and artisanal chocolate  -  but, sadly, we aren't: mainly because of your obtuseness, unparalleled-greed and unpardonable-selfishness, over the decades, since C. B. Mante (may his soul rest in peace) passed away.

We have had enough and will now act resolutely to secure our 50 percent of all the assets bequeathed to us, by our late Grandpa, P. E. Thompson. No one in the family can stop us from taking full control of what is rightfully ours, and for which we have been granted Vesting Assents, by the Probate Court, to finally become legitimate owners of, ooooo (referencing the whole portfolio of our bequeathed 50 percent Clause 12A stake, that is). Full stop. Case closed. Yoooooooo...

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Kofi.

How to end outrage of taxpayers paying for poorly constructed roads

Has the time not now come for us to end the monstrosity of taxpayers having to pay for poorly constructed roads that quickly deteriorate, because of the public procurement state-capture rent-seeking kickbacks-scourge,  anaaa, Ghanafuor?

It is amazing that Ghanaian politicians talk endlessly about the private sector being the best growth-engine for transforming Ghana, yet, are unable to cotton on to the fact that we could actually develop a nationwide network of world-class concrete motorways, simply by giving access to low interest longterm capital from pension funds and the insurance industry (at less than 4 percent), to the private sector's best road contractors.

Surely,  giving road contractors the right to own and toll the roads they build, would enable them  to recoup their investments, over a period of say 35 years - and incentivise them yet further with long tax holidays on top of that?

Is that not doable by a potentially rich sub-Saharan nation, populated by wise and aspirational Africans, anaaaa, Ghanafuor - especially as it will spare long-suffering taxpayers from being forced to continuously  pay for poorly constructed roads that quickly deteriorate: as a result of the state-capture rent-seeking public procurement brown envelope  kickbacks-scourge that has ended up bankrupting our homeland Ghana? Eiiii, Oman Ghana - enti y3wiey3 paaa  enie? Asem kesiey3 bi abeba debi ankasaa, oooo. Yooooooo...

Why we must end all mining in our nation's forest reserves immediately

The dreadful events occurring in the Sudanese capital - as rival forces battle for the control of  Khartoum's key installations, including its international airport and the presidential palace - might seem far away and of no concern to us in Ghana.

Yet, what is now happening in Sudan has valuable lessons for us in Ghana. Warlords can destroy nations for control of valuable minerals, such as gold.

It happened in Liberia and Sierra Leone decades ago.  Their chaotic-murderous-eras still affect the people of both those sister nations, even as we speak, as it happens.

That is why our nation's hard-of-hearing ruling-elites must take active steps to end gold mining, both legal and illegal, in all our nation's  forest reserves,  asap, oooo, Ghanafuor.

If we are to avoid suffering the same fate in Ghana,  as our brothers and sisters once did in Liberia and Sierra Leone,  and the residents of Khartoum are now suffering,  at some point in the not too distant future, then, it is crucial that in the era of extreme weather,  our forest reserves (now definitely more valuable than all the mineral deposits underneath them combined), are ringfenced by our system and made no-go areas, in order to protect the remainder of our natural heritage. 

 

We are not fools. We are  a wise and aspirational African people,   oooo, Ghanafuor, so let us unite to protect our priceless natural capital. Yooooooo...

Let no one doubt that if the impunity of the bad actors destroying our forest reserves for gold,  isn't ended swiftly, today's recalcitrant galamsayers, rogue  small-scale gold miners, community miners and their bedfellows, bushcut chainsaw lumber producers, will morphe into tomorrow's murderous  warlords -  who will upend our democracy, by deliberately creating chaos and insecurity, through a strategy of constantly battling our security agencies: as sure as day follows night.

Ghanafuor, our own Hemeditis are waiting in the shadows for the right moment to arrive for them  to emerge in force. Think the Wontumis - whose  ruthless violence-prone footsoldiers jam-pack our secret services, wai. As a wise and aspirational  African people, we must contain them by ending mining in all our forest reserves. Now. Not tomorrow.  Yooooooo...

The nonsensical-wokery over the golliwog rumpus in the UK

Why are some Blacks so easily offended by the antics of racists? I don't get it, koraaa, oooo. Why burn energy over people who wish you ill, I ask? Daft and unproductive. Full stop.

Golliwogs? Massa, they offend me not, oooo. Cool. Mere dolls? Haaba. Got self-belief by the bucketful, ankasaa, lol. Ditto happen to be thick-skinned, paaaa.

When I used to run what was a very successful farm shop in West London (The Apple Man - London's first farm shop, 114 Goldhawk Road, London W12), during the Thatcherite-era, at a certain stage, I put up a sign saying: If you are infected by prejudice, leave it outside when you come in - and pick it up again on your way out.

It worked a treat. Won't allow dreadful people with narrow minds to get my goat, oooo. Ever. Sods. Cool.

Some people don't know when to back-off

Some people simply just don't  know when to backoff for self-preservation, lol. After carrying out independent checks, I decided against helping a notorious ex-child soldier, from the Liberian civil war period (who is now a refugee living in the Camp Liberia refugee settlement area, at Gomoa Buduburam, in Ghana 's Central Region), who approached me to help him retrieve his mobile phone, from the Tesano Police Station investigator who had been handling a case against him,  for allegedly defrauding a Spanish national, in an online scam, using an unregistered tour company.

At age 70, I now put my peace of mind, above all else - and burning energy on behalf of an online scammer with an ego the size of  Mount Rushmore, isn't something worth pursuing, in my humble view.

Alas, my refusal to help that heartless and egoistical-sod, has elicited a mocking song, Akokora Kofi, blasted out non-stop 24/7, designed to blackmail me - a fearless and thick-skinned fighter of good causes: who boldly speaks truth to power and can't be intimidated, lol. What a genius that ex-child soldier is. Some people don't know when to  back-off. Hmmm, ey3asem oooo...

Open letter to Ghana's minister for lands and natural resources

Honourable Minister,

I shall go straight to the point: My family's 14-square mile upland evergeen rainforest land in the Akyem Juaso section, of the Atewa Range, in the Eastern Region, was acquired on a freehold basis, from the Gyasehene of Kwabeng, Nana Kwasi Banning, in 1921 - and it was added to, and consolidated, as one, with the purchase of yet more land, in 1926, with the concurrence of Nana Ofori-Atta 1.

A total of £1,000 was paid officially, and recorded, but an off-ledger payment of an extra £4,000 was made and distributed. So, in all, my late Grandpa, P. E. Thompson Esq., forked out the princely sum of £5,000. 99.6 acres of the said land lies inside the Atewa Forest Reserve, as it happens. It is referred to in Forestry Commission jargon, as an 'admitted farm', to which we have legal access, but have kept pristine for a future community carbon sequestration project.

The descendants of the Henrietta Akosua Aboagye branch of the P. E. Thompson family tree, are committed conservationists, who are key stakeholders in SYTO Ghana's planned conservation-through-ecotorism land restoration project, in the area, and want you to cancel all the issued gold prospecting licenses, and small scale gold concessions, in our 2.5-square mile portion,  of the 5-square mile P. E. Thompson land lying between the Akusoo stream and the Cheboa stream, which is disected by the Bordwuser stream.

No official from any of the regulatory bodies consulted us (my sister Marian Alma Thompson and myself), when the prospecting licenses were issued, and the delineated small scale gold concessions of our land, were carved out.

With respect, Hon. Minister, we object to an economic activity, gold mining, that will ruin our biodeversity-rich upland evergreen rainforest land, which lies in land designated as a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), by Conservation International, and thus prevent us from turning it into a community-based ecotourism destination, to preserve for future generations. That is unjust.

Thanks.
 
Yours sincerely,

Kofi.

Luddite-mentality drives tech sector xenophobic-political-football brinkmanship

Humankind deserve the best technology - which is why the legal domicile of the best class-leading tech start-ups behind them shouldn't matter.

The world's global-power nations' intelligence agencies by definition infiltrate all tech companies. The intelligence agencies of the  US, EU, UK, China, India and Brazil, all target tech companies.  That's a fact that cannot be denied.

So let's end the hypocrisy about China being such a huge security risk techwise - and let consumers worldwide benefit from cutting-edge technology wherever that comes from: be it the US or China.

Extremist politicians worldwide, must be discouraged from turning cutting-edge technology into xenophobic-political-football, to win votes. That's digital-age Luddite-mentality, wai.  Haaba.

The NPP will be turfed out of power in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections

Are the insensitive and power-drunk politicians in Ghana, who continue to make foolhardy-inflammatory-statements, in a bankrupt nation (whose hapless citizenry are being impoverished by galloping inflation amidst an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis), not aware of the fact our nation is sitting atop a ticking social time bomb, anaaaa? Literally? Yooooooo...

What makes geniuses like the Bryan Acheampongs in the world of Ghanaian politics think that Ghanaians will allow the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections to be rigged by the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to enable it retain power? It won't happen. Full stop.

For the information of the Bryan Acheampongs,  Ghanaians may be long-suffering, but we are definitely not stupid. Ditto not sheep. We will vote out the NPP, in an election that will be an annihilating-landslide-washout-defeat for the NPP. Full stop. No army in the world can stop a fed-up population from toppling a ruling party destroying their nation by voting it out of power. Simple.

Why should we not vote out the most corrupt, arrogant and inept elected government, ever, since independence in 1957, from power, after eight solid years of living in a nation misruled, ripped-off and turned upside down, by the world's most rapacious rent-seeking state-capture insider-dealing pork-barrel Machiavellian-mafiosi-politricksters? The Bryan Acheampongs can rave and rant as much as they want. The NPP will be turfed out of power in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections. For sure. Watch this space!

End mining in all forest reserves across Ghana now - to end an existential threat

In an era when life-threatening extreme weather events are the norm, Ghana's forests and rivers  have become priceless life-sustaining assets, which we must protect at all costs.

In that light, they are now even more valuable than all our precious  mineral deposits combined. We must end mining, both legal and illegal,  in all our forest reserves for that reason.

 Even if we have to resort to the use of killer-drones, with night vision and heat-seeking cameras, in a no-holds-barred high-tech war to stop what is an existential threat endangering the well-being and quality of life of our entire population (which is enriching only a tiny percentage of our total population), let us go ahead and declare war on the greedy  and selfish individuals destroying our  forests and polluting our river systems, soils and groundwater, and eliminate them from their operational areas  across the entire  landmass of the sovereign territory of our Republic,   to end what is an existential threat to all Ghanaians - before it becomes too late to stop them destroying all our forests, and polluting our soils, river systems as well as our groundwater, on top, too, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

To whom it might concern

Been receiving email requests, of late, from complete strangers asking me to join "private twitter groups". Interesting. Very. Hmmm, ey3nsem piiiii, oooo.

I wasn't born yesterday,  oooo, dear critical-reader   -  and I am also not interested in any online/offline activity that isn't open, transparent and accessible to the general public: because I am not a criminal.  Full stop.

Above all, I am old fashioned (in my seventh decade on this plane, as it happens), and a serious person, paapa, oooo, please.

Although I am an uneducated old fool, I am only interested in serious societal issues - and I most certainly don't watch any porn: which to me is abhorrent, daft and a total waste of time. So those sending me those cryptic messages to join "private twitter groups" should take note, wai.  Yooooooooo...

Can digital age data protection be 100 percent foolproof?

Couldn't help being a bit cynical about news reports that some  Tesla employees had been sharing images from cameras on its vehicles sold to customers - contrary to assurances from the company that customer data was protected from such breaches of its laid down policy  from which its employees are barred.

The reality is that that's the price we pay for progress in the digital age, in our every day lives, alas.  That's why its best to lead a life that won't embarrass one when any of the zillions of data privacy breaches that  routinely occur  around the world, hits one, out of the blue. Simple.

Clean living (in all cultural contexts globally) is the only protection guaranteed to spare one from embarrassment in the digital age.

Tesla, like all responsible tech companies,  does what it can to protect data from customers using a policy designed to ensure that, which is compliant with required  regulatory metrics. That's the bottom line. It simply isn't possible for digital age data protection  to be 100 percent foolproof.

How China can help end the corruption draining the lifeblood out of Mother Ghana

Friendship between the people of Ghana and China, and their two governments, go back decades, to the eras of President Nkrumah and Chairman Mao.

In that light, before China agrees to reschedule Ghana's debt to China,  President Xi must be a force for good for the people of Ghana - and demand that Parliament passes tough new anti-corruption measures, to protect the public purse from the rapacious, greed-filled rent-seeking state-capture big-thieves-in-high-places, who dominate Ghana's byzantine system, and are ripping-off Mother Ghana with total impunity.

Chief amongst the tough new anti-corruption legislation, must be the provision of prosecutorial powers for the Auditor General.

Secondly, the assets of all high level  public sector officials and their spouses must be publicly published, before they assume office, and immediately after their tenures end.

Thirdly, whistleblowers must be indemnified from prosecution and rewarded with 30 percent of recovered purloined state funds made possible as a result of their exposure of high-level  corruption by public officials and government ministers and appointees heading quangos.

That is how best China can help to protect the public purse in Ghana, and stem the tide of egregious high-level corruption draining the very lifeblood out of Mother Ghana.

Guaranteeing state revenues in creative fashion

Wouldn't it be marvellous if we could generate a new source of guatanteed state revenues for Mother Ghana, I ask?

Could we not, as part of a nationwide slum clearance initiative,  build new planned green climate-resilient communities, in which all buildings had forest garden compounds, with road networks lined with fruit trees, to replace slums across Ghana - all of which we can then raze down and turn the vacated lands into community family  adventure parks, charging minimum entry fees?

Bank of Ghana Central Bank Digital Currency  (CBDC) accounts could be opened for all individuals and families who want to own properties in those new green climate-resilient communities, but can't afford them - and credited with generational-levelling-up CBDCs sufficient to enable them repay the cost of their chosen properties.

Installment payments for such family properties, in the new planned green climate-resilient communities, ought to be set as low as the equivalent of US $10 per month  -  and serve as guaranteed revenues for the state during the repayment period for all such generational levelling-up longterm loans. Surely this creative way to generate guaranteed state revenues is doable, Ghanafuor? No?

Answering Professor Kojo Yankah's latest concern about Ghana

"We Africans (Ghanaians) are piling up degrees upon degrees, which is great 👍🏿 Question is : why can’t we solve all our multifaceted development problems? What is wrong ? Are what we are learning and studying not beneficial to us?"

      -  Professor Kojo  Yankah  (Founder African University of Communications, Ghana)

With the greatest respect, in one's humble view, no society on the surface of the planet Earth can progress, when those who lack integrity dominate its system, oooo, Ghanafuor.

Ditto when good people sit on the fence and mind their own business - forgetting that the consequences of bad leadership eventually destroys society's moral fabric.  

Perhaps Ghana's tertiary institutions could make a difference in bringing about positive change -  by focusing on ensuring that their students understand the importance of  ethical behaviour in all aspects of their lives?

Just my two pesewas oooo - but then who am I, an uneducated old fool, to tell educated people who have acquired  a string of degrees, what will make a difference for our dear Mother Ghana, lol? Hmmmm,  ey3nsem piiii, oooo, Ghanafuor...

Finally, a little bit of creative-thinking: Instead of endless taxes and seeking an IMF bailout without any anti-corruption measures being put in place to protect the public purse,  why  don't we get this young Zimbabwean inventor to Ghana and partner him to help revive our bankrupt country's national economy:https://www.facebook.com/reel/489720039833829/?mibextid=eA6d3HrSeJoD5Dg0

How the IMF can help save Ghana from ruinous high-level corruption

There is no question that Ghana's hardworking and apolitical world-class solid-achiever-types, who make up its impressive middle-class demographic, now understand that far from being insulated from the effects of ruinous high-level corruption, because of their wealth, they are just as vulnerable to the debilitating effects of bad leadership, as are ordinary Ghanaians.

It is for that reason that prudence demands that middle-class Ghanaians ought to demand that before any debt rescheduling and cancellations take place, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), members of the Paris Club of Nations and China, must act in concert, to force certain changes, to drastically reduce the high-level corruption slowly destroying Ghana.

Chief amongst those anti-corruption measures, must be new legislation giving the Auditor General prosecutorial powers. That is a must if the big-thieves-in-high-places who dominate our system and are selfishly milking Mother Ghana dry, are to be checkmated.

Next up after that anti-corruption measure, must follow new legislation indemnifying all whistleblowers from prosecution - which also incentivises whistleblowing: by rewarding whistleblowers with 30 percent of recovered purloined public funds resulting from their exposure of nation-wrecking high-level corruption.

If those changes (amongst a host of other needed anti-corruption measures), aren't forced on Ghana's hard-of-hearing greed-filled ruling-elites, Ghana will not be able to achieve its full potential regardless of which of the two dominant political parties, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), happens to be in power, in Ghana, at any given point in time, going forward into the future. That is how the IMF can best help rescue Ghana from certain ruination. Yoooooooo...

Trump will have his day in court

What many forget is that former President Trump was the first occupant of the Oval Office to be beholden to a foreign power - who also used the presidency to increase his net worth blatantly.

Some Americans have been executed for trading U.S. secrets for cash from foreign powers. We must never ignore that fact.

The United States of America is a great nation with a system underpinned by the rule of law and is a free society guided by its Constitution.

No American is above the law in what is the bastion of freedom in a world fraught with dangerous adversaries of liberty, both internally and externally. The rule of law matters in a democracy for a reason: to prevent tyrannical-rule. Full stop. Trump will have his day in court. That is as it should be. Case closed. Haaba.

What Mother Ghana needs is an NDC that fights for ordinary people

Now that our bankrupted  country sits atop a ticking social-time-bomb, what Mother Ghana desperately needs at the moment, is a National Democratic Congress (NDC), which fights for ordinary people. Full stop. Case closed. Hmmm, ey3nsem  piiii,  oooo,  Ghanafuor.

In that light, it is vital that instead of seeing the latest shenanigans in Parliament, as an egregious-betrayal, and an unpardonable-abomination,  it would rather help focus minds more sharply, if those who regard the National NDC, as a mass party inspired by Fl. Lt. J. J. Rawlings (as a vehicle to fight for Mother Ghana's best interests and ensure the welfare and well-being of ordinary Ghanaians), saw the astonishing results of the latest ministerial appointment vetting confirmation vote-casting, in Parliament, differently, and in creative fashion. Simple. Cool.

They must see what has happened in Parliament, as a fresh-start-opportunity for the NDC - to enable it give more brilliant young-achiever-types (in the mould of the Francis Xavvier Sosus and Zenator Agyeman-Rawlings), across Ghana, the opportunity to help repurpose the NDC: from being a party of gravy-train-fatcats, to one that rather seeks the national interest at all material times (which is whatever is in the best interests of ordinary people at any given point in time in our history), oooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

Feeling let down, and disappointed, by the treachery of those NDC MPs who voted with New Patriotic Party (NPP), parliamentarians, to approve the President's latest ministerial nominees, won't help the masses, koraaa, oooo, Ghanafuor. No. No. No.

What Mother Ghana needs, now that our country sits atop a ticking social-time-bomb, is an NDC that fights for the well-being of the masses - not one that when push comes to shove, constantly roots for the fatcats gang-raping Mother Ghana so brutally, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Enough is enough. Yoooooooo...

Why Ghana must not build a nuclear power plant

Ghana's hard-of-hearing, greed-filled elites want to foist a nuclear power plant, on Mother Ghana. Amazing. 

The question a wise and aspirational African people ought to ponder over is: If even super-wealthy and efficiently-run Japan, is still struggling and failing to deal with consequences of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, why should we think that we can handle a similar disaster, were one to occur here too, after an earthquake, I ask, dear critical-reader? Hmmm, ey3nsem piiiii, oooo. Yooooooo...

Nuclear waste remains radioactive and hence incredibly dangerous for thousands of years.

If as a society we can't even handle landfill sites for household and industrial waste, and are notorious for not having a world-class maintenance-culture (and we won't even mention how rampant high-level corruption results in the variation of designs for major public procurement infrastructure projects, to make up for fat-brown-envelope kickbacks), let us not saddle future generations with what is bound to end up as an unmitigated disaster of unimaginable proportions, ooooo, Ghanafuor.

We must not allow elite-nokofio-culture to lead us to this hellish-future, koraaaa, oooooo, Ghanafuor. Enough is enough. We must rather focus on incentivising private sector renewable energy players to power Ghana with 100 percent emission-free clean power - and stop the lunacy of planning to build a nuclear power plant in Ghana (a laughable elite-floated self-enrichment-idea if ever there was one, lol). Yooooooo...

Why Ghanaians must fight to protect press freedom and freedom of expression at all costs

We must fight to protect press freedom and our right to express ourselves freely, within reason, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooo. It is in that light that I am sharing this conversation with an old acquaintance of mine, about the Sikakrom Black Kettle Vs Black Cooking Pot case, dear critical-reader:

Old acquaintance to me: "Kofi, As we descend into the land of Kafka, on top of being bankrupt, the question to ponder over, as wise and aspirational Africans, is: Does Pepe Papanas' alleged investigative-terrorism pale into insignificance - when compared to the terrorism of the rent-seeking state-capture big-thieves-in-high-places participating in the brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana, annaa?"

My response: Nothing, but nothing, can end undercover truth-seeking, in Sikakrom, oooo, Massa - for, truth's electric armoured-mobility-ride, can withstand even hydrogen bomb blasts, oooo, wai, lol. In any case, integrity can neither be bought nor intimidated, whatever the score. End of story. Full stop.

Finally, dear critical-reader, here is the summation of Sikakrom's bush-telegraph's consensus vox pop viewpoint:

Incredible end to the Sikakrom Black Kettle Vs Black Cooking Pot case - in which the defendant, an alleged serial molester of underage delectable-young-females, known to be forever breaking all the data protection laws on Sikakrom's Statue Book, on top of publicly admitting to paying for harming-harmful-information; setting up honey-traps for those he targets, and hacking phones for same, etc., etc., won (temporary?) vindication that ought to be appealed against by Pepe Papanas, sharpish, to ensure press freedom and freedom of expression in the fight against nation-wrecking high-level corruption in Sikakrom. We must fight to protect press freedom and the right to freedom of expression at all costs, oooo, Ghanafuor. Full stop. Case closed. Yoooooo...

The Electoral Commission must not attempt to rig the 2024 polls

Under no circumstances must Ghana's Electoral Commission attempt to rig the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, oooo, Ghanafuor. They will have the blood of hundreds of thousands on their hands, were they to attempt any rigging, in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.  Yooooooo...

For the sake of Mother Ghana, it is vital that the EC's current leadership, understand clearly, that at the end of the day, in the final analysis, the verdict of history can neither be procured through intimidation nor the distribution of fat-brown-envelopes full of dosh, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo...

Given the situation which the vast majority of Ghanaians are now grappling with (as they struggle to cope with, and survive galloping inflation), it would be most unfortunate, and unwise, for senior public servants appointed to supervise elections,to continue business as usual, and allow themselves to be manipulated by a government of the day, as has been the case since the inception of constitutional rule, in 1992, in Ghana's 4th Republic.
 
Surely, the current crop of the top brass of the EC, ought to know better (in a country reeling from an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, which sits atop a ticking social time bomb), and ensure that their actions will place them firmly on the right side of history, by organising genuinely free and fair elections nationwide in December 2024: a moral imperative in a nation bankrupted by leaders ostensibly elected to transform the nation into a prosperous and equitable society, but who have ended up wrecking our national economy through excessive borrowing?

In that light, under no circumstances must the EC attempt to rig the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, oooo, Ghanafuor - as it would be tantamount to pouring kerosene on a smoldering fire. Enough really is enough, oooo. Full stop. Case closed. A word to the wise. Yooooooooo...

A quick note to Lauriana Leydet - co-founder Kunbis Social Impact

Hello Lauriana,

I am a writer, as well as an environmental and human rights activist, who speaks truth to power, in Ghana, through opinion pieces.

Research  by us for a book ("Moringa/B-BOVID: A Case Study In How Not To Do Social Impact Investing"), shows that your post-Moringa business track record is solid and impressive.  Bravo.

It might interest you to know that, as we speak,  virtually the whole of Moringa's C-suit executives have decamped to establish Shared Wood - after Issa Oueodrago exposed Moringa as  greenwashing-carpetbaggers from France, with an egregious company culture bedrocked on end-justifies-the-means corporate-criminality, using the reputation of the Rothschilds to cloak the dark ends they seek.

Lauriana, you could redeem what represents an unfortunate  blot on your otherwise stellar post-Moringa reputation, by telling Issa's lawyer, Thaddeus Sory,  how Moringa cheated Issa,  using the Director's account of 4.9 million cedis to represent the whole value of B-BOVID, thereby ignoring both the tangible & intangible values of B-BOVID, a unique profit-sharing organic agrisector  company empowering its value-chain's oil palm smallholder farmer-stakeholders to bootstrap their way to financial independence, worth far in excess of 15 -25  million cedis at the time.

That confession by you, will enable Issa to finally regain control of B-BOVID, and open the way for Kunbis to extend its Global South footprint, to Ghana, working in close collaboration with Issa. Above all, do remember that similar sharp-practice  creative-valuations triggered an investigation of the Trump Organisation, by prosecutors in New York City.  

Thanks.  

Kind regards,

Kofi.

WhatsApp number:+233576564600.

Tel: +233558852619 & +233277453109.

Is the COCOBOD unwittingly failing Mother Ghana?

Relax, Counsel. At age 70, Kofi Thompson knows by now that such projects take time - and don't always follow a straight line,  so to speak.  

What matters is that you are still committed to the project  -  and that Kofi Thompson  still thrives, healthwise,  lol. Do therefore take all the time you need - so that we get it right first time: when we finally make our move.

Hopefully,  you do see the point that by not aiming for, and planning for, an industry conversion that transforms Ghana into the world's biggest producer of organic cocoa, the COCOBOD is unwittingly  failing its value-chain's  smallholder farmer-stakeholders egregiously, and ought therefore to be prodded to act to protect the future of the cocoa industry. Now. Not tomorrow. Full stop.

Finally, to reiterate my main point: There is no question that the COCOBOD's current leadership need to understand clearly that  in a post-pandemic world, in which health-conscious consumers are opting, increasingly,  for organic cocoa products  -  instead of the cadmium-residue-laden ones coming out of producer-nations such as Ghana - by not planning for Ghana to become the world's biggest producer of traceable organic cocoa beans, they are unwittingly failing Mother Ghana.  Case closed. Full stop. Yooooooo...

Democracy better than military rule

President Akufo-Addo  leads  a government that many Ghanaians now regard as the most corrupt regime,  ever, thus far, in our country's chequered  history, since we gained our independence in 1957.

Be that as it may,  that is no reason for adventurers in our midst, to seek enforced regime-change in Ghana.

For their information, any such unconstitutional intervention, will be vigorously opposed, by those of us who believe that remaining a democratic society that elects its rulers every four years, is the best way to ensure a stable and free society for wise and aspirational Africans, such as Ghana's mostly peace-loving citizenry, oooo, Ghanafuor. Despite its many faults, democracy is a better system of government, than military rule, oooo, Ghanafuor. Yooooooo...

It doesn't make sense for the IMF to bail out debt-distressed nations like Ghana without demanding passage of anti-corruption legislation to protect public funds

It simply doesn't make sense for the IMF to continue bailing out debt-distressed nations, being bled dry by corrupt state-capture rent-seeking ruling-elites, without demanding anti-curruption legislation, being put into place to protect public funds.

Needed new legislation in debt-distressed nations such as Ghana include: Giving the Auditor-General prosecutorial powers; indemnifying whistleblowers from prosecution and rewarding them with 35 percent of recovered stolen public funds made possible by their whistleblowing; publicly publishing declaration of asset forms before assumption of office and immediately after the tenures of high public officials (such as government ministers), and their spouses, ends; and banning mining in forest reserves.

Ditto passage of new legislation banning payments of fees of any kind to sector regulatory bodies, by media houses, to protect the right of all Ghanaians to freely express their opinions, guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution. Non payment of fees to sector regulatory bodies have been used to ban anti-regime  media entities in the  past.
 
Ghana - where a sly and greed-filled powerful few, are robbing their country with total impunity, while a mostly-cowed population look on helplessly - is a case in point. For the IMF to bail Ghana out without the above-mentioned new legislation being passed under certificates of urgency, by Parliament, would be like fetching water in an expensive wicker basket, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

Father Joop Visser: Happy Independence Day anniversary to you and your Ghanaian kinsfolk of the Songhor Lagoon salt-winning communities

Happy Independence Day anniversary to you and your Ghanaian kinsfolk of the Songhor Lagoon salt-winning communities, Father Joop Visser. As we celebrate this auspicious day, it strikes  one that perhaps your hopes for a win-win ESG-bedrocked outcome, for your Ghanaian kinsfolk in the Ada Songhor Lagoon indigenous Ga Dangbe salt-winning communities, might now  be possible, oooo, Sage.

One has a strong feeling that if they were  to appeal to the dynamic minister for lands and natural resources, Hon.   Samuel Abu Jinapor, to  broker a new renegotiated win-win agreement with a now-chastened Daniel Makorley, they may actually finally get a new deal they can live peacefully with.

As it happens, Daniel Makorley   lost a case recently, which was heard at one of the Land Courts in Accra. After the judgment was pronounced, he told the media that losing the case had made him understand clearly now that no one is above the law in Ghana.

It's hard to to believe, but Makorley actually went on to inform the media that he saluted the judge who found for the plaintiff who sued him for encroaching on his building plot at East Legon (or thereabouts).

It is in light of that that one feels that perhaps Makorley might now be amenable to a win-win solution, along the very lines that former President  Rawlings always felt was the best option for all the Ada  Songhor Lagoon stakeholders, and for Mother Ghana's longterm benefit.

So, all things being equal, perhaps your long-held-dream of a just and equitable deal, bedrocked on ESG principles, for the indegenous Ga Dangbe of the Ada Songhor Lagoon salt-winning communities, will no longer be  an impossible dream, Sage. Happy Independence Day anniversary to you and your marvellous Ghanaian kinsfolk, of the Songhor Lagoon salt-winning communities, Father Joop Visser!

A no-brainer, not rocket science: world's lowest personal and business tax rates will transform Ghana into a prosperous and equitable society

Members of Ghana's political class need to understand clearly that it is private entrepreneurs who will transform Ghana into a prosperous and equitable society - not governments of the day - going forward into the future. Full stop.

All that our nation's current cohort of hardworking and innovative younger generation of green economy entrepreneurs need, and require, is a Ghana that has the world's lowest personal and business tax rates - and guarantees 100 percent repatriation of profits for the foreign investors who fund their projects. Simple. Case closed. Full stop.

Surely, that's not beyond the realms of possibility, anaaaa, Ghanafuo? Haaba.

Furthermore, why is such a policy not a no-brainer amongst our ruling-elites?

Surely, setting the world's lowest personal and business tax rates, ought to be doable in a society that is full of wise and aspirational Africans - lucky to live in a beautiful country, with an amazing talent-pool: which no one who sets foot in, will fail to be impressed by?

Let's make Ghana a welcoming African nation with the world's lowest personal and business tax rates - and release the boundless energies of the most talented and gifted amongst its younger generations: empowering them to transform our Motherland into one of the planet Earth's most prosperous and equitable societies, wai, Ghanafuo. That is a no-brainer, ooooo -  not rocket science, koraaaa. Yoooooooo...

It will be tragic for Ghana if the IMF fails to wring vital anti-corruption reforms out of our hard-of-hearing ruling-elites

Ghana has the potential to become one of the wealthiest societies on the surface of the planet Earth. Yet, she  is currently  debt-distressed - and unable to meet interest payments on her massive debt mountain.

As we speak, Ghana has reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund  (IMF), for a bailout amounting to US$3 billion - contingent upon debt forgivance arranged for it by the Paris Club group of nations.

If the dominant-elements amongst Ghana's ruling-elites were honest, principled and dedicated to providing generational-levelling-up opportunities to empower base-of-the-pyramid demographics, as well as abhorrent of high-level corruption,  Ghana wouldn't have come to the sorry pass she is now in.

In light of the above defect in the character of the dominate elements amongst Ghana's  ruling elites,  before extending any help to Ghana, the IMF, China and all her other foreign creditors, must demand the following reforms designed to end egregious high-level grand-larceny:

1) Passage of legislation by Parliament giving the Auditor General prosecutorial powers.

2) Passage of new legislation making it mandatory for all high-level  public sector appointees (and their spouses) to publicly publish their assets before assumption  of office, and immediately after their tenures end.

3) Passage of new legislation banning mining in all Ghana's forest reserves and cancelling all issued exploratory gold mining licenses in forest reserves.

4) Passage of new legislation to end statutory-requirement of payments by media houses of monetary fees to sector regulatory bodies, because it impedes freedom of expression  in Ghana, and is often used to muzzle anti-regime media entities and media professionals, by corrupt elements in Ghana.

5) Passing new legislation to end sole-sourcing in public procurement to  make it a clear-cut-illegality in public administration and nation-building.

6) Passage of new legislation indemnifying whistleblowers, whose revelations, and exposure, of nation-wrecking-corruption, results in prosecutions and recovery of stolen public funds.

Ghana is being destroyed by its greed-filled and hard-of-hearing ruling elites, whose impunity needs to end, if the nation is to prosper. In short, without the above-mentioned  reforms being carried out urgently, Ghana's creditors must let her stew in her own juice.

There is no question that high-level is impoverishing Ghana. Demanding an end to high-level corruption is the best way Ghana's creditors can help save her from ruination. It will be tragic for Ghana if the IMF and her other foreign creditors fail to wring vital anti-corruption reforms out of our greed-filled and hard-of-hearing ruling-elites. Enough is enough. Full stop. Case closed.